Wednesday, September 14, 2016

We are in the midst of downsizing, moving from our three story home to a smaller place on one level. Creativity has taken a back seat, in fact, it's so far from my consciousness that I don't know when I can get back to painting. I've made some tough decisions art-wise, knowing that I can't store all the supplies in hopes that someday I'll switch gears. Someday is NOW.

Instead of a big studio with two storage closets and a basement for backup I'm taking over the master bedroom as well as a small area in the garage where I will paint. For the foreseeable future I'll stick to collage, sketching with watercolor and ink, and painting with acrylics. All else gets sold or passed on. I've even cut way way down on sewing and am selling all my silk, wool, and cottons with the exception of half a dozen lengths for specific projects. I'm selling my patterns, too, because thanks to Bright Line Eating I've lost nearly 50 pounds and nothing fits. It's a good thing, a very good decision.

If you live anywhere near Cedar Mill/Beaverton, Oregon and like bargain-hunting put my Estate Sale on your calendar. September 24 and 25, Saturday from 11-4 and Sunday, 12-4 at 11990 NW Maple Hill Lane, Portland, OR 97229.

I'll get back to posting to my blog as soon as I can. Have patience, dear readers, and stop hoarding art supplies!

Art Tip: Removing acrylic from hands

Use ordinary hand sanitizer to quickly remove acrylic paint and medium from your hands. The alcohol in the sanitizer dissolves the acrylic. Wipe well with a paper towel and then wash with soap and water.

Art Tip: brush cleaning

As I work with acrylic medium for glue or with acrylic paints I stand my brushes in a bucket of water on my work table and give them a soap and water cleanup every day or so. But eventually my brushes get gunky and sometimes I forget to clean them. That's when I clean them with Murphy's Oil Soap. I keep an inch of MOS mixed 1:1 with water in a tall plastic tub (Feta from Costco) and put caked brushes in that solution overnight. By the next day the soap has softened the brush and with a bit of elbow grease I can get the brushes back to useable. This also works for brushes used with oil paint. I gave up using oils but wanted to save those good brushes and Murphy's Oil Soap came to the rescue. Get it at the grocery store.